


The Closest Friend I've Got

by Daisy_Rivers



Series: Meant to Be [6]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, F/M, Growing Up Together, M/M, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, OT3, Plans For The Future, True Love, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 00:30:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18712825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisy_Rivers/pseuds/Daisy_Rivers
Summary: The time frame in this episode shifts back and forth from a month before Eliza and John's wedding to the summer Eliza, John, and Alex were ten and began to make plans. Peggy is a bit dense here, I'm sorry to say, and Angelica has to deal with her.





	The Closest Friend I've Got

“I don’t understand why they’re having such a small wedding,” Peggy said. “I want a huge wedding, with, like, at least ten bridesmaids, and cute little flower girls, and a live band at the reception.”

Angelica stuck a stamp on another shower invitation. “Well, fine, I’m sure Mom and Dad will be thrilled to hear that,” she responded drily, “but Eliza gets to decide what she wants.”

Peggy began adding return-address stickers to the envelopes. “Don’t you think it’s _weird?_ ” she asked.

“Don’t I think what’s weird?”

“You know, Eliza and John. I mean, when were we supposed to figure out that they were dating? Like, for their whole lives, Eliza, John, and Alex have been best friends and then – boom! John proposes, and they’re getting married. Do they ever even go anywhere together without Alex?”

Angelica sighed. She didn’t really want to have this conversation. Peggy should have figured it out by now like everybody else had, but apparently not. “Actually,” she said, “I don’t think they have gone anywhere without Alex.”

Peggy stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“Peg, you’re twenty years old, not ten. Think about it.”

Peggy thought about it, and her eyes widened. “You mean Alex is, like, _with_ them? Ew! No!”

Angelica raised an eyebrow. “Why?” she asked, her voice ice-cold.

“It’s just ... I mean, Eliza’s supposed to be in love with John.”

“She is. She’s absolutely in love with John.”

“Then what’s going on with Alex?” Peggy looked like she was about to cry. “Is their whole wedding a fake?”

Angelica pushed the invitations away, irritated that her mother hadn’t bothered to make sure Peggy understood Eliza’s relationship. “I’m going to make some tea,” she said, “and you’re going to pull yourself together and act like an adult.”

*          *          *          *          *

“I’m going to live here when I grow up,” Eliza said the summer they were ten. “Then I’ll never have to go away.”

They were in their special place between the dunes. Rachel had made them a picnic lunch, and they had just finished, meticulously cleaning up everything and putting the trash into a bag to take back to the house. “We do _not_ pollute the beach,” Alex reminded them firmly.

Alex was lying on the sand now, his hands under his head, watching the gulls swoop through the sky. John was leaning against the dune, Eliza right in front of him between his legs, her back against his chest. He liked the way she felt there. He ran his fingers through her long dark hair. She didn’t wear it in pigtails anymore, and it got tangled every day from the wind and water, but it was always soft and nice to touch. “We should all live here together,” he said now.

Alex sat up. “Yes.” His eyes were bright. “We can all live in one house.”

Eliza was looking down, sifting sand through her fingers. “Remember when we were little, and I said I would be the mom and you guys would be the dads?”

Alex’s eyes met John’s over her head. “Yeah,” he said.

Eliza kept her head down, and her voice was barely audible. “I still want to do that.”

John’s face broke into a smile of pure joy. He held Eliza with one arm and reached out the other to Alex. “Then let’s do it,” he said.

Alex felt the happiness bubble up inside of him as Eliza whirled around to face John. “How?” she asked. “How can we do it? It’s not … it would be like getting married, but three people can’t get married.”

“So? We don’t have to get married. I mean, my dad and Rachel aren’t married, but they live together. It’s pretty much the same thing.”

Eliza’s eyes were wide, and she still wasn’t smiling. “But if we want to have babies?”

“Then we’ll have babies,” John said. “Lots of people who aren’t married have babies.”

Eliza looked from John to Alex, and took Alex’s hand. “You have to have sex to have babies,” she reminded them seriously.

John’s grip tightened on both of them. “Of course we’re going to have sex. You have sex with people you love. We love each other.”

The realization and relief washed over Eliza along with another feeling that she didn’t recognize. Her face lit up. “I was being so silly. I was worried for nothing.”

Alex gave her a sideways hug. “What, did you think one of us would fall in love with somebody else?”

That idea was so ridiculous that they all collapsed in giggles. “We’re going to love each other forever,” Eliza said as they lay tangled together on the warm sand. “We’re going to love each other, and we’re going to live together, and we’re going to be a family.” Her head was on John’s shoulder, and Alex’s head was on her stomach, and they were all holding hands. She closed her eyes and felt the sun on her face. Everything was going to be all right.

*          *          *          *          *

Angelica carefully placed the mugs of tea on the table, although she felt more like slamming them down. The wedding was less than a month away, and Peggy was supposed to be a bridesmaid. She’d better not create a problem for Eliza. “Okay,” she said now. “Ask me any questions you have.”

Peggy looked sulky, the way she had when she was twelve and didn’t get her way. “Why didn’t anybody tell me?”

Angelica rolled her eyes. “Because we thought you knew. Everybody else figured it out by the time they were fourteen. Hell, I knew long before that.”

Peggy stirred some sugar into her tea and took a sip. “So what are they, like some kind of threesome?”

“Technically, I think it’s called a triad, but yeah, it’s all three of them.”

“A triad?”

“Peg, for God’s sake, don’t you read anything but Instagram? There are all different kinds of relationships.”

“I know that!” Peggy snapped. “It’s just a little hard to deal with when it’s my own sister.”

“She’s my sister too,” Angelica reminded her, “and I have no problem with it.”

Peggy stared into her teacup. “How do they … do they all, you know …”

“You seriously want the details of their sex life?”

“No!”

“Then what are you asking?”

Peggy grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes. “Stop yelling at me.”

Angelica took a breath. There were days when she did not enjoy being the oldest. “Fine,” she said in a calmer voice. “What was it you were trying to ask about?”

“John and Alex? Are they together too, or is it just Eliza and both guys?” Peggy’s face was bright red from embarrassment.

“My guess is that yes, they are, but you’d have to ask them yourself if you really want to know.”

Peggy was horrified. “I’m not going to ask them!”

“Right.”

“You don’t know?”

“Why would I know? You think at some point, Eliza came to me and said, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m in love with John and Alex both, and they’re also fucking each other’?”

Peggy started to cry, and Angelica was angry at herself for losing her temper. “Look, Peg, I’m sorry for snapping at you, but first, we all thought you knew because it was so damn obvious to everybody else, and second, if you say anything mean to Eliza, I will kill you.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Peggy said, and blew her nose. “I just have to get used to it.”

Angelica nodded. “Yeah, just be sure you get used to it before the shower.”

“Okay.” Peggy drank some more tea.

“You like John and Alex, don’t you?” Angelica asked, her voice gentler.

“Of course I do. I love them both, they’re like my brothers.”

“And you know they love Eliza?”

“Yes, that’s what I couldn’t figure out. I couldn’t understand why she got engaged to John when it always seemed like she liked them both the same.”

Angelica looked at her expectantly.

“Oh,” Peggy said after a moment. “That’s what you meant.”

“Yeah.”

“It still seems weird to me, Ange.”

“I don’t care how weird it seems to you, you’re going to be happy for Eliza because she’s happy, right?”

Peggy nodded. “Yeah, I will. Even if I don’t understand it.”

“You don’t have to understand it. They do, and it works for them. It’s their life.”

*          *          *          *          *

“We should make a plan,” John said, “so that we have it all figured out before we’re eighteen.”

“That’s a good idea,” Alex agreed. “It’ll help us focus.”

“And not waste time,” Eliza added. “We should write it down.” She looked around John’s room for paper and pencil.

“We’ll write it down for now,” John said, “but I’ll put it in a computer file.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

John was silent for a minute. “People may think we’re too young. If they know we’re making plans about our whole lives, they might not want us to be together so much.”

All of them had caught hints like that from their parents. _Don’t you have other friends? Wouldn’t you like to go to camp for a couple of weeks in the summer? How about if you invite Jacob/Abby/Sam over to play?_

Alex nodded. “You’re right, John. We probably shouldn’t talk about it with anybody else.”

Eliza had found a spiral notebook and a pencil. “Okay, what’s first?”

“Well, first, we have to live with our parents until we’re eighteen. If we try to leave before then, they could call the police. And anyway, we have to go to college so we can get jobs.”

Eliza wrote it down: _1\. Live with mom and dad till 18. 2. Go to college._ She looked up. “That’s years and years!” she said.

“If we all go to the same college, we can probably get an apartment together,” Alex suggested.

“Good idea,” John responded. “We can figure out which college later.”

“It’s still eight years until we can be together all the time,” Eliza protested.

“We’ve got summers,” Alex reminded her.

“I know, I just hate being away from you from September to June every year.”

John took her hand. “We’ll make it.” he grabbed Alex’s hand too. “We’ll get through eight more years because we love each other.”

Eliza smiled. “Yeah, we will.” She picked up the pencil. “What’s next?”

“After college, we get married,” John said, as if it was that simple.

Alex put his hand up. “Wait, didn’t we already talk about that? Three people can’t get married.”

John was still holding Alex’s other hand, and he brought it up to his cheek for a minute. “That’s true, but I’ve been thinking that two of us ought to get married because it makes insurance and other stuff easier.” He stared at their baffled faces and shrugged. “My dad runs a business and he talks about stuff like that. If somebody’s married, then their husband or wife and their kids can get on their insurance.”

“You are really smart,” Alex said admiringly.

John flushed, embarrassed. “I just know about it because of my dad’s work. It would be good to do it if we’re going to have kids because then one of us could stay home with the kids and still get insurance and stuff. I looked it up on the internet to be sure.”

Eliza was taking notes: _3\. Get married so we can have insurance._ “How do we decide which two of us get married?” she asked.

“It would probably be best if you married one of us,” John said. “You’re going to be the one having the babies, and maybe you’ll want to take some time off – only if you want to, I mean.”

“Boys can be stay-at-home dads,” Eliza pointed out, frowning at him.

“Totally,” John agreed, feeling as if he was narrowly avoiding getting in trouble.

“But only girls can actually have babies,” Alex reminded them, “so Eliza marries one of us for the insurance and stuff, and then what?”

“Then whoever isn’t technically married moves in with the other two, and we all live happily ever after,” John said.

Eliza nodded in satisfaction. “So who am I going to marry?”

Alex and John looked at each other. “Rock, paper, scissors?” John suggested.

“Sure,” Alex agreed.

John won.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this series, and thanks always for kudos and comments. Maybe two or three more pieces to this -- is there anything in particular you'd like to know about our OT3? My outline is flexible, and sometimes my readers have great suggestions.  
> Talk to me here or on tumblr @daisy-rivers


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